Krÿs – Hexen [Germany, Black] (2017)

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11-13-17 | Narbentage Produktionen | The Hidden Art

Krÿs is from Germany and I do not think the band’s name has any easy translation into English. The name Hexen is already known enough not to be mysterious and most of the song titles do not hold any deep level of esoteric meaning. For the most part this demo is a pretty transparent package of black metal without many gimmicks or talking points. I feel for this reason, it succeeds beyond similar releases of this year.

Though it is labeled as black, the vocal and instrumental range of Hexen extends into areas of death and whatever vile wasteland lies in between. This could be just black metal yet its presentation is completely unchained and not confined to what is expected. With songs like “Storms of Impurity” having a looming atmosphere while wild cries of agony wail in the background, the composition for Hexen blasphemes all standards of decency.

At the moment of publication, this band is without a Facebook page with only a few Youtube songs and the Bandcamp pages associated with the two distributing labels. There isn’t much I can research and for now I just have to go with an above average black metal demo which rips open the sky with sorcery.